Even getting special permission to only have something like 28 students per class (if that in fact is even possible), would blow the staffing budget.

Anonymous wrote:I am curious about what electives Skyview will be able to offer, with staffing formulas requiring 30+ high schoolers per class.

For the 9,000 time, they are offering the same electives as every other AP school in the County. What is offered will depend on what the kids select based on the staffing ratios that are set. I would not be surprised if they don't require 32 students in a class and allow for a smaller number, it is a unique set of circumstances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With only around 700 students (some of whom won't take any languages at all), there is no way they can fully staff four languages.

They are 9th and 10th graders, the vast majority of them will take a language. Most colleges require 2-4 years of a foreign langauge and they prefer language taken in HS then MS. I would guess that the vast majority of the kids opting in to Skyview are planning on attending college.

There are going to be plenty of kids taking a language in 9th and 10th grade.

Sure, but not all of them. A language is an elective, not a requirement. IF they have 700 students, 600 might be taking a language. Almost all of those will be Spanish or French. I doubt they will have 130+ wanting the less popular language, so they won't be able to staff a full teacher for those.

I don't think you are familiar with this community.

I thought people kept saying that Floris, McNair and Coates were a lot of low income students, so moving them wouldn't hurt Westfield. Are none of those students opting into Skyview next year?

I would guess that a good number of Floris students opted in, I have no idea about Coates and McNair. You had to read the email, go to the website, and fill out the form to opt in. It is likely that some parents didn't read the email to know what to do to opt in because they are not paying attention. I know Floris parents have been following the process, I have seen fewer people posting on this site or the facebook pages I follow that discuss this process from Coates or McNair. Westfield might not lose a ton of students for 2026-2027, just like SLHS is only losing 45 students for 9th grade next year.

2027-2028 you have to opt out, so that is when I expect that Westfield, SLHS, and Chantilly will see a larger impact. Obviously, the largest impact will be 2028-2029 when the boundaries take hold and everyone moves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With only around 700 students (some of whom won't take any languages at all), there is no way they can fully staff four languages.

They are 9th and 10th graders, the vast majority of them will take a language. Most colleges require 2-4 years of a foreign langauge and they prefer language taken in HS then MS. I would guess that the vast majority of the kids opting in to Skyview are planning on attending college.

There are going to be plenty of kids taking a language in 9th and 10th grade.

Sure, but not all of them. A language is an elective, not a requirement. IF they have 700 students, 600 might be taking a language. Almost all of those will be Spanish or French. I doubt they will have 130+ wanting the less popular language, so they won't be able to staff a full teacher for those.

I don't think you are familiar with this community.

I thought people kept saying that Floris, McNair and Coates were a lot of low income students, so moving them wouldn't hurt Westfield. Are none of those students opting into Skyview next year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With only around 700 students (some of whom won't take any languages at all), there is no way they can fully staff four languages.

They are 9th and 10th graders, the vast majority of them will take a language. Most colleges require 2-4 years of a foreign langauge and they prefer language taken in HS then MS. I would guess that the vast majority of the kids opting in to Skyview are planning on attending college.

There are going to be plenty of kids taking a language in 9th and 10th grade.

Sure, but not all of them. A language is an elective, not a requirement. IF they have 700 students, 600 might be taking a language. Almost all of those will be Spanish or French. I doubt they will have 130+ wanting the less popular language, so they won't be able to staff a full teacher for those.

I don't think you are familiar with this community.

I am curious about what electives Skyview will be able to offer, with staffing formulas requiring 30+ high schoolers per class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took a language remotely via satellite TV at my rural high school 30 years ago. There were only 4 of us in the room watching it. I don't understand why kids can't take whatever language they want today with laptops and webcams being standard issue.

Did you ever take a language class in person?
Do you really not see the difference?
It is true that online language courses may be offered to students, but to many, they are not equivalent in quality.

Its better than nothing, I guess. Or they could just take a more common language available on site. Everyone can't have everything just how they want it, its a public school system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With only around 700 students (some of whom won't take any languages at all), there is no way they can fully staff four languages.

They are 9th and 10th graders, the vast majority of them will take a language. Most colleges require 2-4 years of a foreign langauge and they prefer language taken in HS then MS. I would guess that the vast majority of the kids opting in to Skyview are planning on attending college.

There are going to be plenty of kids taking a language in 9th and 10th grade.

Sure, but not all of them. A language is an elective, not a requirement. IF they have 700 students, 600 might be taking a language. Almost all of those will be Spanish or French. I doubt they will have 130+ wanting the less popular language, so they won't be able to staff a full teacher for those.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I took a language remotely via satellite TV at my rural high school 30 years ago. There were only 4 of us in the room watching it. I don't understand why kids can't take whatever language they want today with laptops and webcams being standard issue.

Did you ever take a language class in person?
Do you really not see the difference?
It is true that online language courses may be offered to students, but to many, they are not equivalent in quality.

Should be true, but there are some exceptions/poor teachers.

Anonymous wrote:I took a language remotely via satellite TV at my rural high school 30 years ago. There were only 4 of us in the room watching it. I don't understand why kids can't take whatever language they want today with laptops and webcams being standard issue.

Did you ever take a language class in person?
Do you really not see the difference?
It is true that online language courses may be offered to students, but to many, they are not equivalent in quality.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With only around 700 students (some of whom won't take any languages at all), there is no way they can fully staff four languages.

They are 9th and 10th graders, the vast majority of them will take a language. Most colleges require 2-4 years of a foreign langauge and they prefer language taken in HS then MS. I would guess that the vast majority of the kids opting in to Skyview are planning on attending college.

There are going to be plenty of kids taking a language in 9th and 10th grade.

+1 My guess: 700

Anonymous wrote:With only around 700 students (some of whom won't take any languages at all), there is no way they can fully staff four languages.

They are 9th and 10th graders, the vast majority of them will take a language. Most colleges require 2-4 years of a foreign langauge and they prefer language taken in HS then MS. I would guess that the vast majority of the kids opting in to Skyview are planning on attending college.

There are going to be plenty of kids taking a language in 9th and 10th grade.

I took a language remotely via satellite TV at my rural high school 30 years ago. There were only 4 of us in the room watching it. I don't understand why kids can't take whatever language they want today with laptops and webcams being standard issue.

With only around 700 students (some of whom won't take any languages at all), there is no way they can fully staff four languages.

Anonymous wrote:Given that technically there are no Japanese Immersion classes at the high school level, what happens after they complete Japanese 4 when they are sophomores?

At SLHS they would take IB Japanese, SL. I still find it weird that there was no HL option for Japanese at SLHS. AP has a test for Japanese so I would guess they would take that. I believe that there are DE options for kids who want to take a 6th year of any language.